Let the rebuilding proccess begin

PHILADELPHIA — It all went up in a puff of stage smoke with a special teams gaffe, then a deflected pass that went for an interception return for touchdown by Dallas’ Brandon Carr.

Before the latest comical chapter in Andy Reid’s last season in Philadelphia was written off Sunday as a 38-23 loss to the Cowboys, however, there was something to build on in one last serious show of desperate chaos by the Eagles.

Down 15 points, the clock drawing its final few gasps, the Eagles’ veteran skill guys commenced a firehouse drill of a play that saw them lateralling, throwing and generally upchucking the football to and fro, stunning what remained of their lost fanbase and almost inviting the Stanford marching band to enter the fray.

In a way, they seemed to be telling all those empty seats in Lincoln Financial Field that the effort is still there, if only because they can’t believe it’s all over.

Advertisement

“I didn’t come into this year thinking, ‘We’re playing for Andy’s job,’” Brent Celek said. “We all thought we were going to be sitting in a great position. You think you’re going to play well. You think you’re going to win a lot of games. But sitting where we’re at now, it’s so disappointing because it’s obvious there are jobs on the line.

“I hope it’s personal for guys. I hope guys understand that there are other guys’ jobs on the line. Their jobs are on the line, my job’s on the line, everyone’s is. We have to start playing.”

Make no mistake, though, for it is all over.

The Eagles are 3-6, riding a five-game losing streak while presenting what should be convincing evidence to anyone worthy of gold-standard ownership that the only future for this team is a complete reconstruction project that can begin seven games early.

Oh, what to do, what to do...

“You go back to the drawing board and get it right,” Reid reasoned. “That’s what you do.”

The only certainty for the Eagles, after losing Michael Vick to a concussion and then losing all semblance of poise when replacement Nick Foles reminded everyone he’s a rookie, is a pending game with the Washington Redskins with a solo spot in the NFC East cellar at stake.

Despite shrugging answers that mathematical miracles can still exist in this season script, the obvious answer for owner Jeffrey Lurie is validation that his passive-aggressive demand of a significant improvement over last year’s 8-8 record will not be heeded.

So consider the concussed quarterback gone. Judging by the way he was slowly walking through the locker room afterward, you probably won’t see him anytime soon, anyway.

When judging by contractual numbers, though, almost certainly Vick won’t be here to oversee any overhaul, or even a tinkered restart in 2013. This five-game losing streak with no end in sight should trigger a cutting of ties between Vick and the Eagles. As Vick goes, so too will Reid, along with the bulk if not all of his assistant coaches.

Housecleaning 101, with smartly dressed GM Howie Roseman left to sweep away the dust and start all over again.

As for a season epitaph after all of nine games, it can be written that while you can’t do anything about your quarterback getting a concussion, you can — as Reid has spent 14 years saying — put him in a better position with playcalling to succeed and stay healthy.

You can’t do anything about four starting offensive linemen going down with injuries, but you can draft better and coach better. You can be better stocked at certain positions ... did somebody bring up the offensive line?

That scary pair of tackles, Demetress Bell and King Dunlap, will have the highlight show hosts chuckling away this week. Bell was seen as the weakest link among the Eagles’ weakest group, and he took the time twice against the Cowboys to show why with a couple of ill-timed penalties.

Yet King lapped Bell on this day, leading all his court jesters with three penalties in the second half. One was an illegal use of hands call that short-circuited an Eagles drive toward the Dallas end zone.

Then when they went to line up for a field goal on that possession, the King forgot to go line up with them, forcing Reid to burn a timeout.

You know, not that there’s anything unusual about that. No surprise, then, when asked afterward if he had anything to say, the usually amiable Dunlap answered, “Nope.”

Really, what else can be said, except that the time is now for Lurie and Roseman to find out if they have a quarterback in Foles. They just have to hope this line — which except for the penalties that caused a case of happy feet for Foles as the game crumbled around him had spells of unified competency — is able to keep the new quarterback healthy while Vick tries to regain his senses.

“We improved from last week,” lineman Dennis Kelly asserted. “Unfortunately, we had some breakdowns late in the game which ended up hurting us. But I think we can put it all together and kind of keep building on the improvement and I think we should be all right.”

Maybe so, who knows? As Reid always says, “You don’t know in this league, so you keep battling.”

Sure do ...

Seven weeks and counting before Lurie tries to start getting it right again. Until then, he will only stand idly by, trying to assess what, if anything is of value out of this mess of a Reid farewell.